Harris To Deliver Commencement Address At JCC

Joshua T. Harris will deliver the 2014 commencement address at Jamestown Community College’s Cattaraugus County Campus on May 16 and at the Jamestown Campus on May 17.

The May 16 ceremony begins at 7 p.m. in the Olean YMCA/JCC Physical Education Center on Wayne St. in Olean. The commencement program in Jamestown begins at 10 a.m. May 17 in the Physical Education Complex.

Harris, policy director for The Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank advancing responsible data use and consumer privacy, graduated from JCC in 1998 with a degree in social sciences and a concentration in political science.

Harris graduated with honors from the State University at Geneseo in 2000, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science. In 2004, he earned a juris doctor degree from the George Washington University School of Law and was selected for the White House’s Presidential Management Fellowship program.

As a student at JCC, Harris participated in the SUNY Model European Union and International Negotiation Modules Project. Those experiences led him to a career in economic policy, during which he worked as an international trade specialist for the U.S. Department of Commerce in the International Trade Administration’s Office of Technology and Electronic Commerce developing and implementing the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation’s Cross Border Privacy Rules System.

In 2012, he received the U.S. Department of Commerce Gold Medal, the highest award offered by the department, for his work.

Harris also represented the U.S. Department of Commerce in international groups that included the Organization of American States and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.